Prabowo Wants English and Mandarin Taught from Primary School, Utilising Smartboards

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto wants schoolchildren to learn foreign languages such as English and Mandarin from primary school benches. Prabowo stated that foreign language lessons could be taught via interactive digital boards (PID) or smartboards distributed to all schools in Indonesia. “Later we will have a central studio in Jakarta. The best teachers, for example in English, we will take native speakers, who can teach everyone who needs it,” said Prabowo at SMAN 1 Cilacap, Central Java, on Wednesday (29/4/2026). Prabowo explained that PID can encourage more interactive and easily accessible teaching and learning activities (KBM) for both students and teachers. In the future, syllabi and learning materials will be stored in digital format, allowing them to be studied at any time. “In this way, it is interactive, syllabi are in the software, helping everyone. If a student or teacher wants to repeat, lessons can be replayed at any time,” he said. For example, the government will recruit native speakers of foreign languages for student learning, and the recordings can be accessed via PID in schools. Prabowo said that currently each school has at least one PID, and he is striving for each school to have an additional 3-4 PIDs. “I want all classrooms to have digital screens, smartboards. Now there is only one per school. Some have two. So our target is still three or four more per school. This year we will strive for three additions across Indonesia,” Prabowo stated.